Businesses must align recruitment and talent development strategies

 

Businesses should align recruitment and talent development strategies to ensure the best chance of overcoming the impending worldwide skills gap.

This is according to new research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which revealed 63 per cent of global organizations feel the ability to find candidates with the right skills will be the biggest barrier to commercial growth this year.

Closer to home, Australia is already experiencing these problems. A 2012 study by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) found leadership skills were cited as the characteristic most lacking in the country’s firms.

PwC Global HR Consulting Leader Michael Rendell said organizations need a combination of inward- and outward-looking policies when it comes to talent management strategies.

“Businesses need to get out of the mindset that new skills equals new people,” he explained.

“The most successful organizations will combine recruitment with developing their own people to be more adaptable to its changing plans.”

The PwC research showed 93 per cent of CEOs believe their strategic planning for attracting and retaining the right people needs to change. Despite this, only three in five were currently in the process of doing so.

“CEOs are laying much of the blame for the skills shortage at the feet of government and legislators, but they should accept that they need to re-think the way they think about, look for and value their employees,” Mr Rendell stated.

Strategy software can help organizations to better align recruitment and talent development strategies by clearly communicating objectives, monitoring results and offering real-time flexibility to adjust plans immediately when necessary.

StrategyBlocks, for example, is a cloud-based platform that enables managers to eliminate confusion and introduce organizational clarity, while ensuring all staff are actively engaged with the process.

The software uses highly visual dashboards and assures strict accountability at all stages in the strategic planning process.